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Saito Takuji
2013-02-18, 09:35 PM
i have 3 to start off with, both were by the same player, in the same game.

first one was, we had a deck of many things that the player wanted to keep, so he wished that the deck would always be with him, so it was stuck imbeded in his chest, so anytime a card was drawn from the deck, he would take loads of damage. this was fixed by adding a flap in his skin/flesh.

next instance he had wished for, cant remember the speciffics of if it was a number or unlimited, but he had wished for more wishes. wich the GM granted in the form of gaining controll of wishes that were being casted by other wizards, but they knew who took controll of the wishes.


sadly that part never came into play because the last wish (all of these were gained thru the deck of many things) was to have gone thru different schooling, basically he was trying to recreate the character, as he had rolled some nice ability scores. so the gm granted it, but the circumstances that lead him to meet the party never happened, so he had to re-roll his character from the start.


yeah this guy not the brightest of wish..... uh wishers

NichG
2013-02-19, 01:43 AM
Now I'm imagining a campaign based around beings that go around and adjust Wishes based on either 'they went too wrong' or 'this result cannot be allowed to be'. The group is composed entirely of Mortals who wished for more wishes(they get to deal with more wishes for the rest of their lives)...

killer_monk
2013-02-19, 11:49 AM
my father granted a wish to a man who wished "I wish I was the mostly deadly weapon in existence." so from that day forth his piss was the most powerful acid in existence and it could melt through anything. he took huge damage from doing even simple things, like relieving himself. He was eventually stabbed in the bladder(the only thing that could hold the acid) and was melted in half by his own liquids.

My father also granted a wish in which my friend asked for a single gold piece. The gold piece appeared on the ground in front of him, but when he turned to tell me he actually got a non-deadly wish he found he was standing in the 9th circle of hell. he died from balors munching his corpse.

best one i've ever granted is someone wished for some gold. They saw it was on the table in front of them, then a red dragon great wyrm busted into the tavern and killed them. moral of the story: don't steal from dragons... hehehe...

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-02-19, 01:48 PM
This seems apropos... (props if you know the reference)

(spoiler for big image)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WXPgtB37GM/TXQRdbTdQ9I/AAAAAAAAA2s/ct4KHkQklOA/s1600/gg_puella_magi_madoka_magica_-_04_c2aef6ca-mkv_snapshot_05-16_2011-01-29_01-14-51.jpg

Synovia
2013-02-19, 01:57 PM
Adversarial DM'ing is awesome.

Eurus
2013-02-19, 02:10 PM
If someone wishes to "be the most deadly weapon in existence", they kind of had it coming. o_0

One gold piece, on the other hand... well. It does seem in rather poor taste, and utterly random, unless it's an exceptionally tongue-in-cheek game. Never dealt with Wishing firsthand.

kenjigoku
2013-02-19, 02:38 PM
I have never understood in the 3.5 context of wish granting where a DM punishes a player for something like a single gold piece. The spell itself states that the wish occurs without adverse effects.



...
Create a nonmagical item of up to 25,000 gp in value.
...
You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)

BlckDv
2013-02-19, 02:52 PM
I will chime in with a reminder that Fun is subjective. I have DMed for many players who really enjoy the "Careful what you wish for" aspect out of folk lore, and I have been specifically approached by players when i was running 3.x games to ask if we could house rule out the "safety net" of wish and make any wish perilous, wishes having negative side effects is not always a result of adversarial DMing.

I recall one PC who ended up betrothed to a Blue Slaad after a poorly worded wish hoping to find true love. I wish I could recall what was said; I remember the player getting a look of horror before I even started narrating as he realized how badly it had been said.

Another time I recall a dead PC (Milo the Halfling Rogue)and a dead Animal Companion (Doyle the Dire Bat) being merged into one new creature (Doylo the Bat-thief) through a poorly worded attempt to try and get two raise dead effects from one wish. The Gnome Druid was thrilled, the now Sentient Mount was not so sure about the situation.

An attempt at the classic immortality without aging wish led to a PC having a "Vampiric aura" that kept them young by draining the life of living things near them, with a radius that grew as the amount of nearby life shrank. Led to a very tragic development of the PC.

Synovia
2013-02-19, 03:11 PM
There's a difference between "Be careful what you wish for" and "You turn around and are eaten by Baalors. Roll up a new character."

One can lead to great things, the other should probably get a book thrown at you.

Tengu_temp
2013-02-19, 04:02 PM
My favorite wish trick is to make the genie ask "okay, how many wishes are we talking about?" as the first thing he does when he appears. And when the players pick some ridiculously huge number, he grins and says "okay, for my first wish, I want...". It was never specified who is supposed to fulfill whose wishes here, after all! It's also a good way to force the party into performing some arbitrary task. Each time it happened they found a way to turn the situation against the genie, though.



My father also granted a wish in which my friend asked for a single gold piece. The gold piece appeared on the ground in front of him, but when he turned to tell me he actually got a non-deadly wish he found he was standing in the 9th circle of hell. he died from balors munching his corpse.


This is not only needlessly mean-spirited, but it doesn't even make any sense. It doesn't even twist the wish or take it too literally, it just adds a random negative effect just for the heck of it. An anvil out of nowhere might've as well fallen on his head.


This seems apropos... (props if you know the reference)

(spoiler for big image)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WXPgtB37GM/TXQRdbTdQ9I/AAAAAAAAA2s/ct4KHkQklOA/s1600/gg_puella_magi_madoka_magica_-_04_c2aef6ca-mkv_snapshot_05-16_2011-01-29_01-14-51.jpg

Contract?

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-02-19, 05:22 PM
My favorite wish trick is to make the genie ask "okay, how many wishes are we talking about?" as the first thing he does when he appears. And when the players pick some ridiculously huge number, he grins and says "okay, for my first wish, I want...". It was never specified who is supposed to fulfill whose wishes here, after all! It's also a good way to force the party into performing some arbitrary task. Each time it happened they found a way to turn the situation against the genie, though.
That's awesome.

This is not only needlessly mean-spirited, but it doesn't even make any sense. It doesn't even twist the wish or take it too literally, it just adds a random negative effect just for the heck of it. An anvil out of nowhere might've as well fallen on his head.
Yeah...the only justification I can see is "you never specified where you wanted to get your gold piece", as a way to teach players to be very specific with Wish. But that's a big-time stretch and not terribly creative.

Contract?
If there's one thing that anime has taught me, it's that you don't make contracts with anyone. It just ends badly. Although...
Madoka does demonstrate that a well-worded wish under the right circumstances can break the game in an awesome way.

mjlush
2013-02-20, 05:59 AM
I've long been of the opinion that it is impossible to phrase a spoken wish in a manner that is completely free from ambiguity.

Archmage1
2013-02-20, 08:01 AM
Nonsense. You just need to have a pre-written contract that precisely describes what you want, that you have looked over several times over the last month.
Or, you know, use one of the non-risky options. Like, say, wish for a magical item. Like a ring of infinite divinely quickened wished to appear at some specified location so that you can retrieve and use it. That is not a tqistable wish by RAW, amazingly enough.

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-20, 08:23 AM
"*insert actual first wish here*, and no mucking about, else my second wish is gonna involve finding out what happens to annoying genies when they get sucked through jet engine turbines."

Lord Torath
2013-02-20, 08:25 AM
My father also granted a wish in which my friend asked for a single gold piece. The gold piece appeared on the ground in front of him, but when he turned to tell me he actually got a non-deadly wish he found he was standing in the 9th circle of hell. he died from balors munching his corpse.

Nonsense. You just need to have a pre-written contract that precisely describes what you want, that you have looked over several times over the last month.
Or, you know, use one of the non-risky options. Like, say, wish for a magical item. Like a ring of infinite divinely quickened wishes to appear at some specified location so that you can retrieve and use it. That is not a twistable wish by RAW, amazingly enough.
Yes, but you forgot to specify that you not be transported anywhere nasty, or that no ubermonsters suddenly pop up around you to kill you for the temerity of using a Wish. Or to not be struck by lightning. Or that...you get the idea.:smallsigh:
I have always felt that wishes are supposed to be a Reward, not a punishment. So unless they wish for something outrageous, I see no reason to twist it.

Elderand
2013-02-20, 08:34 AM
"*insert actual first wish here*, and no mucking about, else my second wish is gonna involve finding out what happens to annoying genies when they get sucked through jet engine turbines."

*muck up your first wish then turn you into a genie for you to indeed find out what happen when being sucked through a jet engine*

Jack of Spades
2013-02-20, 08:35 AM
Yes, but you forgot to specify that you not be transported anywhere nasty, or that no ubermonsters suddenly pop up around you to kill you for the temerity of using a Wish. Or to not be struck by lightning. Or that...you get the idea.:smallsigh:
I have always felt that wishes are supposed to be a Reward, not a punishment. So unless they wish for something outrageous, I see no reason to twist it.

Well, easy way to fix that: "Wish is to be granted in such a way that no direct or indirect harm, including but not limited to loss of limb, life, possessions, social standing, free will, or any other tangible or intangible assets held by the wisher, will be incurred by the wish granter by any objects or situations generated, summoned, provoked, or otherwise brought to the attention of any parties by the granting of the wish."

Elderand
2013-02-20, 08:38 AM
Well, easy way to fix that: "Wish is to be granted in such a way that no direct or indirect harm, including but not limited to loss of limb, life, possessions, social standing, free will, or any other tangible or intangible assets held by the wisher, will be incurred by the wish granter by any objects or situations generated by the wish."

As far as I can tell, that might actually be foolproof

Jack of Spades
2013-02-20, 08:39 AM
As far as I can tell, that might actually be foolproof

Eh, I found a couple holes... Edited while you quoted, heh. :smallamused:

The best part would be watching the genie trip over itself for the rest of your life trying to make sure that it doesn't violate the wish...

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-20, 08:46 AM
*muck up your first wish then turn you into a genie for you to indeed find out what happen when being sucked through a jet engine*

Well, I didn't actually *make* the second wish - there's nothing to stop me from changing it/offering further speculation after getting turned into a genie. Point is, while it can be very difficult to phrase a wish so that nothing bad happens to you, it's a lot easier to phrase it to ensure that something bad happens to the genie.

Mind, if the genie is actually a malicious and omnipotent being capable of acting independently entirely outside the bounds of the wish - for instance, by randomly teleporting people to hell or turning them into genies - the issue ceases to be "Be careful what you wish for" and more "Don't piss off all-powerful creatures with sadistic senses of humor."

And that second one doesn't sound nearly as pithy.

Vizzerdrix
2013-02-20, 09:17 AM
"*insert actual first wish here*, and no mucking about, else my second wish is gonna involve finding out what happens to annoying genies when they get sucked through jet engine turbines."

I've always liked offering the genie the third wish as payment so long as it assists you wording your wish so you actually get what you intend. Within reason. And I doubt they get deals like that often.

GnomeFighter
2013-02-20, 09:32 AM
It seems to me that some people have taken "Twising the wish" to mean "unrelated bad stuff happens" which seems wrong to me. To be honest I don't get why DMs do this. Yes, it is traditional that wishes are twisted, but this is part of an overall use of wishes as a parable. It makes no more sense than saying "Yes, you can cast a fireball, but the people of the village you are trying to help will burn you as a witch".

However, sometimes it is better to twist the wish than say no, like the examples given by BlckDv. The players were trying to cheat the wish by getting two people raised. I would do the same in that case, as they should have used two wishes. Make them go and find a second wish to undo the mess they have made.

Hyena
2013-02-20, 09:42 AM
My character once wished the genie could not grant his wish. The genie responded with teleporting my character in women's bathhouse without his gear.
Yeah, I had it coming.

Jay R
2013-02-20, 09:55 AM
Some of the most fun situations occur when the player doesn't know his character has a wish. I am quite willing for a player to accidentally waste a wish this way. I had a player who was trying to convince me his brigantine armor was more protective than the rules said, and he happened to say, "I just wish this armor was as good as I thought it would be when I bought it.

So I shrugged, said, "All right, your armor now works as well as plate mail," and quietly crossed off one of the three wishes on his sword.

Other DMS are willing to go farther, and I must admit that this was a very tempting situation. In another game (with a different DM), a PC had an Arrow of Slaying. He also had a wish, but didn't know it. He said, "Man, I wish I had a b*ttload of these arrows."

So where would you deliver them?

I don't go out of my way to twist a wish. My general rule of thumb is that a Wish should go wrong only if it was in some way obnoxious, greedy, or rules-twisting, and only in a way suggested by the wish.


"*insert actual first wish here*, and no mucking about, else my second wish is gonna involve finding out what happens to annoying genies when they get sucked through jet engine turbines."

Genie: (mucks up first wish) Yes?
PC: [makes 2nd wish as above]
Genie: (disappears, reappears a few seconds later, much larger) Turns out that if you put what is essentially an anthropomorphic manifestation of a whirling windstorm through a jet turbine, it becomes much more powerful. The wrist manacles binding me to the ring got destroyed, though.
[Hilarity ensues.]

Crazyfailure13
2013-02-20, 10:41 AM
The best wish i ever heard was i wish for a wish that cannot be twisted through ambiguity, the genie waves a hand, summons a table, a stack of blank paper, and a lawyer, who appeared to have been summoned from hell.

Mono Vertigo
2013-02-20, 10:58 AM
[...] and a lawyer, who appeared to have been summoned from hell.
So, a regular lawyer.



I'll get my coat.

Synovia
2013-02-20, 11:02 AM
The whole punishing players for wishes is just terrible. THe idea is that overreaching wishes are supposed to be treated overly literrally and have unexpected outcomes. The concept is not "You're screwed if you get a wish".


Look at an overreaching wish as an opportunity to put the characters in a ridiculous situation. Don't look at it as an oportunity to kill a character.

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-02-20, 11:18 AM
Oh, I think that "when you make a wish, you are likely screwed" is a very potent paradigm. It is, after all, one of the guiding principles of the Sidhe, who will stick to the letter of a contract while using their own whims to guide the rest of the wish.

It just needs to be spelled out more up-front. But, honestly, I think that's the sort of wish generally present in fantasy, and I don't think it's just about an anvilicious Aesop about having victory given to you vs. earning it. I think it's about the reality of "there's always a catch".

Grod_The_Giant
2013-02-20, 11:27 AM
True, but I feel like the twisted wish should be a form of "yes, but..." as opposed to "yes, and now DIE HORRIBLY AS BALORS EAT YOUR SOUL MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!1!!"

Synovia
2013-02-20, 11:27 AM
Oh, I think that "when you make a wish, you are likely screwed" is a very potent paradigm. It is, after all, one of the guiding principles of the Sidhe, who will stick to the letter of a contract while using their own whims to guide the rest of the wish.

It just needs to be spelled out more up-front. But, honestly, I think that's the sort of wish generally present in fantasy, and I don't think it's just about an anvilicious Aesop about having victory given to you vs. earning it. I think it's about the reality of "there's always a catch".

Right, but the consequences should suit the scope of the wish.


"I wish for 1 gold coin" shouldn't really have any consequences. If you want to be a jerk, maybe the gold coin is in a currency thats not locally useful. It certainly shouldn't turn into Baalors and eat you.

"I wish to be emperor of the universe" on the other hand, has a huge scope, and is hugely open for the wish being interpreted in multiple ways.

killer_monk
2013-02-20, 11:31 AM
I will chime in with a reminder that Fun is subjective. I have DMed for many players who really enjoy the "Careful what you wish for" aspect out of folk lore, and I have been specifically approached by players when i was running 3.x games to ask if we could house rule out the "safety net" of wish and make any wish perilous, wishes having negative side effects is not always a result of adversarial DMing.

I recall one PC who ended up betrothed to a Blue Slaad after a poorly worded wish hoping to find true love. I wish I could recall what was said; I remember the player getting a look of horror before I even started narrating as he realized how badly it had been said.

Another time I recall a dead PC (Milo the Halfling Rogue)and a dead Animal Companion (Doyle the Dire Bat) being merged into one new creature (Doylo the Bat-thief) through a poorly worded attempt to try and get two raise dead effects from one wish. The Gnome Druid was thrilled, the now Sentient Mount was not so sure about the situation.

An attempt at the classic immortality without aging wish led to a PC having a "Vampiric aura" that kept them young by draining the life of living things near them, with a radius that grew as the amount of nearby life shrank. Led to a very tragic development of the PC.

To clarify, the guy who died from Balors was not required to re-roll his character. It seems I needed to add that. Time was simply reversed and the player(new to D&D and wishes) learned how twisted a wish could get.

Funniest greed related wish-twist i ever saw was somebody wishing for a million gold. It appeared in a 3-mile high stack directly above their head. they were crushed. Talk about a heavy metal...

As for my edition? I play 1e and we most assuredly houserule out ANY safety net. Because wishes are the "Easy" way to get things, and the DM should make people earn it. not just give it away.

BlckDv
2013-02-20, 11:33 AM
One thing that I always try to factor in is where does the Wish come from? Many folks have made replies that clearly reference the clssic wish from a Genie, but you could also be getting a Wish from many other places, a Devil, an Item, a Spell, etc.

To reference the most controversial wish on this thread so far, if a player had summoned up a grumpy Devil for a wish and was not using it in any way the Devil could see twisting to evil, I could imagine a devil adding a rider like "Sure you get your gold, but it is in hell." If I was the DM I'd be more likely to do something like the gold coin you got was very distinctive and unknown to you from a specific place that the owner would notice it gone, or the Gold Coin would be part of a cursed hoard (Pirates of the Caribbean?), etc. I do feel that the twist should be about the effect, not a totally unspecified second effect (So to me plane shifting you to Hell would be outside of the desirable ways to twist it.. perhaps opening a portal and saying your gold is right on the other side if you were really set on that twist...)

I try to establish a source for Wishes which are not obvious.. if you cast a Wish or get it from a Ring, where is that power actually FROM? If a ring is power stolen from a potent elemental being, it may want to twist wishes that don't benefit it's element, if it is power invested by a God, it may not try to twist wishes that benefit that God's portfolio, etc. A crafty player can even make a fun side quest of trying to track down a Wish item that he thinks is likely to line up with his desired Wish.

As far as the "safe' wishes in the context of 3.x go.... if a player tries to wish for an item that couldn't appear as part of a random treasure (Like the above quickened infinite ring of Wishes) you can be darn sure I'm treating that as outside the safe zone. RAW makes pretty much any string of words you can make a valid magic item, but I'm quite sure that the intent was never for a +5 Sword of [All types] Slaying with Defender and Vorpal powers to be a valid safe wish, and if a player thinks it is, we probably don't belong in the same game.

Synovia
2013-02-20, 11:33 AM
As for my edition? I play 1e and we most assuredly houserule out ANY safety net. Because wishes are the "Easy" way to get things, and the DM should make people earn it. not just give it away.

Wishes aren't easy to get.

Lord Torath
2013-02-20, 11:43 AM
+1 to that. Wishes are either a 9th level spell that ages you 5 years to cast*, or are given out BY THE DM as treasure(or traps, depending on how perverse your DM is). How is this "easy"?

*At least in 2nd Edition.

killer_monk
2013-02-20, 11:52 AM
If wishes aren't easy to get then why not just earn whatever it is that you want? Think about it: What's the lowest level you've ever gotten a wish? what level would you have gotten the desired object at? etc...

Lord Torath
2013-02-20, 11:58 AM
The earliest you get a wish is when the DM decides to give one to you. It is only as easy as he/she makes it.

killer_monk
2013-02-20, 12:02 PM
The earliest you get a wish is when the DM decides to give one to you. It is only as easy as he/she makes it.

I'm not saying wishes are terrible, or that they always end poorly. Just saying that if wishes weren't easier than just earning the actual object or effect that they wouldn't exist.

Also, were would this great thread be if there was no way to make pointlessly hilarious things happen to greedy people?:smallbiggrin:

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-02-20, 01:06 PM
Right, but the consequences should suit the scope of the wish.


"I wish for 1 gold coin" shouldn't really have any consequences. If you want to be a jerk, maybe the gold coin is in a currency thats not locally useful. It certainly shouldn't turn into Baalors and eat you.

"I wish to be emperor of the universe" on the other hand, has a huge scope, and is hugely open for the wish being interpreted in multiple ways.
To add to the above point about the source of the wish--it really depends on who's granting the wish. A cosmic entity will see no difference between the single gold coin and being emperor of the universe; they're both pathetic ant things. Perhaps the wish-granter (a troll?) has a fanatic attachment to their gold.

I mean, at its core, wishes really are not about being fair. They're about fulfilling an obligation. Depending on how you earned that obligation, and how the being so obligated feels towards you...well, your wish may turn out far better or worse than you expect.

falloutimperial
2013-02-20, 04:39 PM
I figure the best way to prevent a Wish from going awry is to make a wish that adds something interesting to the plot. Once, my party was trying to unite a variety of factions against a devil, so I wished for a circlet that got beneficial magical powers for the wearer whenever a major faction swore to assist in the coming battle, a la Deltora Quest.

A Tad Insane
2013-02-20, 04:48 PM
My LE sorc (self proclaimed d-bag to end all d-bags), when given a wish from a LG goddess he just freed, pulled out a list that very speticially wished that the goddess would summon a literal bag of dou... *censoring* over everyone he hated, and said bags would cause lethal damage to those he hated. Unfortunatly for him, the goddess changed his alignment to true good before fufilling the wish, so only he died.

mjlush
2013-02-20, 06:55 PM
Nonsense. You just need to have a pre-written contract that precisely describes what you want, that you have looked over several times over the last month.
Or, you know, use one of the non-risky options. Like, say, wish for a magical item. Like a ring of infinite divinely quickened wished to appear at some specified location so that you can retrieve and use it. That is not a tqistable wish by RAW, amazingly enough.

Thats is why I specified a spoken wish I suppose my point was that gratuitous wish twisting is shooting fish in a barrel

scurv
2013-02-20, 07:27 PM
Monkeys paw! I have inserted them in to game before 5 wishs and they are all cursed...and I tend to make sure the players are hinted about that.
House rule on wishes is that you have one breath to state what your wish is.

Someone wishes for huge strength. Fine they are polymorphed

Wish for gold, Granted enjoy your gold Sir Dragon. Although that one was quite fun when the adventures (Party) showed up. I reminded them that the long established history of them not engaging in parley or dialogue with sentient and intelligent monsters was to be upheld in this encounter. And let me tell you, They were TICKED! But it ended well for the most part.

Scow2
2013-02-20, 07:45 PM
I'm not saying wishes are terrible, or that they always end poorly. Just saying that if wishes weren't easier than just earning the actual object or effect that they wouldn't exist.
What wouldn't exist? Wishes? By making ALL wishes negative, you undermine the mechanics of D&D, because it uses Wishes as a crutch - How many spell effects have you seen that can ONLY be removed by a Wish/Miracle? Also, the game assumes you'll use wishes for the bonuses to attributes, without providing alternatives.

Wish already comes with a great, soul-burning cost even when used as intended.

Deophaun
2013-02-20, 09:36 PM
Well, if you want to be unfathomably rich, you don't use wish. You use fabricate. So, if you're going to be that DM, I'm going to cast fabricate once and use the funds to buy a +5 tome for every stat. We'll just pretend that wish doesn't exist, no matter how many worthless rings you send my way.

That's if I'm a wizard.

Players who don't play wizards, of course, deserve what they get for playing inferior classes, so twist away.

scurv
2013-02-20, 10:28 PM
I differentiate between cursed wishes and benevolent wishes. Both have their place. Although I tend to trim down the power of the wish spell somewhat in my campaigns. Due mostly to my not wishing to adjudicate that mess.

Saito Takuji
2013-02-20, 11:45 PM
wow that went in a different direction than i expected, all i was lookgin for is amusing wishes gone crazy, guess i should't have worded my wish for more wish stories so poorly. :smallwink: ahwell

Barmoz
2013-02-21, 12:22 AM
Other DMS are willing to go farther, and I must admit that this was a very tempting situation. In another game (with a different DM), a PC had an Arrow of Slaying. He also had a wish, but didn't know it. He said, "Man, I wish I had a b*ttload of these arrows."

So where would you deliver them?


That's so awesome, I can't believe 20 some posts have passed without anyone commenting on it. This isn't DM twisting at all, you're almost obligated to deliver the wish as stated, but perhaps soften the blow by DM retconning it to 3 wishes and clue in the other PC's. 1 of the 2 remaining wishes to restore the human(oid) pincushion, and then 1 wish left to put the PC as he was before he "shot off his mouth" but with a great story to tell.

mjlush
2013-02-21, 07:19 AM
To clarify, the guy who died from Balors was not required to re-roll his character. It seems I needed to add that. Time was simply reversed and the player(new to D&D and wishes) learned how twisted a wish could get.


No, what they learned was "Never use a Wish"

More experienced players would be probably thinking 'This game is on probation'

Madeiner
2013-02-21, 07:50 AM
As a DM, i had the PCs fight a young red dragon that had gated in a efreet servant. During the fight, he asked for spells twice, but as he was nearing death, he asked to become "invincible" (note: in italian, invincible is the same word as "unwinnable"). The efreet, which hated the dragon for gating him, granted the last wish.

The dragon was instantly polymorphed into a lottery ticket. The characters picked up the ticket, which said things like "The red dragon lottery, try and win 25.000 gp".
The characters of course scratched the part that said if you win or not, and of course, it said "You lost. Try again!".

The dragon was thus invincible/unwinnable forever :D

Lea Plath
2013-02-21, 08:23 AM
My friend told me about this one game they played in where the GM had several types of wishes.

The way it worked was they got a good wish, a twisted wish and a neutral wish when every they got something like a genie. They weren't told which was which and normally the DM made it up on the fly. This meant he could stop them doing something very silly, like making a poorly worded wish wipe them out, let them have exactly what they asked for or create some intresting effects.

Asmayus
2013-02-21, 08:32 AM
As a DM, i had the PCs fight a young red dragon that had gated in a efreet servant. During the fight, he asked for spells twice, but as he was nearing death, he asked to become "invincible" (note: in italian, invincible is the same word as "unwinnable"). The efreet, which hated the dragon for gating him, granted the last wish.

The dragon was instantly polymorphed into a lottery ticket. The characters picked up the ticket, which said things like "The red dragon lottery, try and win 25.000 gp".
The characters of course scratched the part that said if you win or not, and of course, it said "You lost. Try again!".

The dragon was thus invincible/unwinnable forever :D

That's amazing :)

Best I have (which pales in comparison, mind) is a friend who wished to be "20 levels above where he was now"

The fall damage was bad, but not fatal :P

Mono Vertigo
2013-02-21, 09:04 AM
As a DM, i had the PCs fight a young red dragon that had gated in a efreet servant. During the fight, he asked for spells twice, but as he was nearing death, he asked to become "invincible" (note: in italian, invincible is the same word as "unwinnable"). The efreet, which hated the dragon for gating him, granted the last wish.

The dragon was instantly polymorphed into a lottery ticket. The characters picked up the ticket, which said things like "The red dragon lottery, try and win 25.000 gp".
The characters of course scratched the part that said if you win or not, and of course, it said "You lost. Try again!".

The dragon was thus invincible/unwinnable forever :D
I believe you win the thread here. And the Arrow of Slaying gets second place in my book. *applauds*

mjlush
2013-02-21, 09:29 AM
Nonsense. You just need to have a pre-written contract that precisely describes what you want, that you have looked over several times over the last month.
Or, you know, use one of the non-risky options. Like, say, wish for a magical item. Like a ring of infinite divinely quickened wished to appear at some specified location so that you can retrieve and use it. That is not a tqistable wish by RAW, amazingly enough.

Come to think of it I did run a magipunk game were experience points were literally farmed and the entire economy ran on magic items.

Wishes in particular were a standard tool for any medium to large scale civil engineering project. The Wish lawyers would spend years crafting and testing the phraseology of up to 1000 interlocking wishes ... the actual construction would take an hour or two. After that the phraseology was kept very well guarded, about 15% of wishes were used to protect the structure from interference by other wishes, if the phraseology was known loopholes could be found :->

To make the job easier about 20 wishes had been used to create a 'Wishic' a language in which it was impossible to be ambiguous. (the first wish was to create the language the next 19 to make it useable, even then a wish is still needed to begin to teach the language to someone)

Mighty_Chicken
2013-02-21, 09:43 AM
I wish I could recall what was said;

Now you recall what your friend said every 2 seconds. For the rest of eternity. Enjoy.

EDIT: I just remembered this amazing comic story I read. It's from the Brazilian adult comedy comic writer Laerte.

Black/political/polemic humor ahead.

In 1991, a US soldier finds a lamp in the ruins of Bhagdad. He brings the lamp home and one day he scratches it. A Djinn appears. He's excited and beggins wishing things.

But the Djinn says: "wait. I can not serve a master who is not a true believer". The ex-soldier goes lie oh, man. But hey, the genius gives as much wishes as he wants! So he converts to Islam. "Ok, give me my money and luxury right now!" But the Djinn isn't convinced. "Why are ou still using those Western clothes?" The ex-soldier canges to a typical arab clothing. "I'm a Muslim! Let me wish!". But the genius says, "how can you call yourself a Muslim, if your frighe is full of products of the Great Satan?" Happens the guy had a ton of Coca Cola in his fridge. Ambitiously, he starts throwing away all industrial products in his fridge.

His wife sees it and gets mad. "What the hell do you think you are doing? Throwing things away and dressing like a fool like that". The man, who's black, argues with her that Islam is the religion they should be practicing since always. The Djinn interveins, "a true Muslim would never let a woman talk to him like that". The man agrees and ties his wife and shuts her in the wardrobe.

Suddenly, the man starts hearing noise from the street. It is cars, loud music, and his TV is showing trash advertises. The Djinn looks to him, confident. "What's your bidding, master?"

The man's face is full of rage. "Death to the infidels".

Chimaeras and griphins burn the suburbs with their breaths of fire. The end.

Seems like a good idea. A wish that you have to "deserve" by changing who you are. But will you still wish the same thing after you changed?

Jay R
2013-02-21, 11:32 AM
My general rule is to wish for something good for my character, but which serves the DM's goal. Don't wish for something that will annoy the DM.

I'm currently running a mage/thief who is an Earl. The DM wants him spending his off-time developing the county, rather than than making magic items. If I had a wish, I would wish for a Lyre of Building, so it could help the county, rather than something useful only in battle.

Synovia
2013-02-21, 05:57 PM
My general rule is to wish for something good for my character, but which serves the DM's goal. Don't wish for something that will annoy the DM.

I'm currently running a mage/thief who is an Earl. The DM wants him spending his off-time developing the county, rather than than making magic items. If I had a wish, I would wish for a Lyre of Building, so it could help the county, rather than something useful only in battle.

The DM shouldn't be deciding what your character's goals are.

Jay R
2013-02-21, 07:10 PM
The DM shouldn't be deciding what your character's goals are.

I overstated it for brevity. Sorry for the confusion.

Of my several goals, he is more interested in the county-developing one, so I'd make sure that any wish served that goal as well as the others.